Man, 70, arrested in child prostitution case

ENCINITAS  A Rancho Santa Fe man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of paying to have sex with 12- and 13-year-old girls, sheriff’s officials said.

Michael Lustig, 70, who runs a real estate licensing school out of Ocean Beach, is expected to be booked into federal jail downtown.

The investigation began more than a year ago, in June 2012, when Lustig was arrested during a prostitution sting at the Howard Johnson motel on Leucadia Boulevard in Encinitas. The sheriff’s North County Human Trafficking Task Force picked up Lustig as a suspected john soliciting prostitutes, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Caldwell.

Investigators seized several of Lustig’s cellphones at the time and discovered he’d been texting two girls, ages 12 and 13, soliciting sex, Caldwell said.

Authorities were later able to identify the girls and track them down for interviews, officials said. Both admitted to engaging in sex acts with Lustig for money in late 2011 and early 2012, Caldwell said.

After sheriff’s and FBI investigators served numerous search warrants and subpoenas in the case for further evidence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for Lustig’s arrest. He is being charged with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor.

He was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and the FBI at 10 a.m. Tuesday during a car stop at Interstate 805 and Governor Drive — after he ran a red light and drove erratically, Caldwell said. Once he stopped, he was taken into custody without problem.

“These are challenging cases that present a lot of obstacles along the way,” Caldwell said of the lengthy investigation. “People don’t want to talk in these types of cases all the way around, from suspects to victims. Hopefully we can help these two minors who we appreciate coming forward.”

Caldwell said several programs exist to help young victims in such cases.

According to public records, Lustig has worked as a real estate broker since 1978 and has run Real Estate License Services, a school for those seeking their brokers’ licenses. His broker’s license expired last year, state records show.

He is the author of 35 books on real estate and insurance topics, according to an online biography.

A woman who answered the phone at Lustig’s business Tuesday said she was unaware of his arrest and declined to comment.